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Ares Facility Archives
<\\> ACCESSING 00 {ARK} CORE ARCHIVES <\\> SLIPSTREAM SUPERLUMINAL CARRIER WAVE {VINDICATED PREMISE}// ' ' <\ YOUR QUERY HAS BEEN APPROVED AND LOGGED: 07/306 {OVERSEER} <\ INITIATING TARGETED SEARCH>> >> NOTATION KEYWORD SEARCH: “ARES” “FACILITY” “ARCHIVIST” “OVERSEER” “ARCHITECT” "PARASITE" "LABYRINTH" >> (...) ~ QUERY RUNNING >> (..) >> (.) >> () <\ SEARCH COMPLETE: 15 RESULTANT FILES LOCATED <\ DISPLAYING RESULTS: ARCHIVE FILE 1 ARCHIVE FILE 2 ARCHIVE FILE 3 ARCHIVE FILE 4 ARCHIVE FILE 5 ARCHIVE FILE 6 ARCHIVE FILE 7 ARCHIVE FILE 8 ARCHIVE FILE 9 ARCHIVE FILE 10 ARCHIVE FILE 11 ARCHIVE FILE 12 ARCHIVE FILE 13 ARCHIVE FILE 14 ARCHIVE FILE 15 <\ DO YOU WISH TO RESTART SEARCH? < ARCHIVE FILE 1 > <\ SENDER: JD/907 {ARCHIVIST} <\ HOURS BEFORE ARRAY ACTIVATION < The construction of Facility has begun, and my Constructors make good progress. 37% of the external structure has been completed, and I hope to begin work in the internal corridors soon. Security patrols have turned up nothing of interest on this world, at least pertaining to Containment. It seems that it is one of the few worlds left that is of heart. < The actual colony has been established, and the colonists are settling in nicely, or so the Overseer tells me. His concern for them is quite touching, but ultimately futile. This world is directly in the path of Abomination. Why you chose to set up a colony here, is quite beyond me. < I hope to move Specimens into the Facilities as soon as they come online. Naturally, most of the work on the facility is non-essential, and once a suitable defensive perimeter can be established, I shall begin my work. Six freighters are en route with the Specimens, containing the biomass within a light containment barrier. <\ END FILE < ARCHIVE FILE 2 > <\ SENDER: JD/907 {ARCHIVIST} <\ HOURS BEFORE ARRAY ACTIVATION < The specimens arrived today. A small number of colonists chose to turn up at the welcome. Armed. They were understandably eager to eliminate any potential threat to their new home, but their actions were misguided. Blind destruction is what us in this mess. Studying our enemy, searching for weaknesses to exploit, is our best chance for victory. < When they turned their weapons on my Sentinels, though, they really left me no choice. I really don’t understand what the Overseer is so upset about. < Specimens have been transferred to the Observation/Quarantine storage facility, with additional Sentinel patrols to prevent further attempts. The Overseer has made it clear to his colonists that I will not tolerate further infractions of Interference. < I still have trouble believing that a colony would be established within such close proximity to Facility. Even the slightest Outbreak would immediately place the colonists in jeopardy, and render them vulnerable to infection. Even worse, such an occurrence would threaten Protocol. I have asked the Overseer to tighten control of his colonists, but he insists that I lend him a portion of my Sentinels for activities and security. I am inclined to agree, but only grudgingly. < Research will begin once the due Observation/Quarantine period has elapsed. Naturally, we cannot risk utilising damaged specimens – that would completely throw our results off! <\ END FILE < ARCHIVE FILE 3 > <\ SENDER: JD/907 {ARCHIVIST} <\ HOURS AFTER ARRAY ACTIVATION < Our progress has been considerable! Even from the paltry amount of information we have gathered, there are numerous strategies that we can implement to counteract the Flood threat! With such a rapid rate of discovery, I anticipate our proceedings to considerably expand our knowledge of Enemy we face, and our ability to fight it! < At the multicellular level, the Flood seems to be a chaotic assembly of randomised forms working with a collective spirit. But at the cellular level, it is even more complex, precisely because it is not. It is a paradox we have encountered rarely in nature, but of its being are surprisingly common. < At its most basic form, the Flood is composed of unique undifferentiated cells designated Flood Super Cell. These FSC’s are loosely organised, but are capable of surprising diversity, comparable to stem cells, able to form a number of variations in order to mimic the functions of organs. These cells are able to under extremely rapid cellular mitosis, as well as transferring genetic material to other organisms, in a manner most closely resembling viruses. The Flood is one of the least sophisticated organisms encountered, and is perhaps proof that sometimes, is perfection. Whether despite or because of its simplicity, it is extremely effective at what it does. Infection begins at the cellular level – a small number of FSC’s must be transferred to the victim, either through physical external contact or inhalation of spores. Once inside the organism, the FSC’s invade the cells, overwriting the original genetic code and using the cells to produce entirely new FSC’s, which proceed to continue the process at an ever-accelerating rate. This total process is swift and efficient, far more so than would be expected, and total conversion of a host can take few minutes at the most, and at the least few seconds. < Once a hosts entire genetic structure has been overwritten, work begins on converting it into usable biomass. Initially, this process is difficult to discern, and the original structure and shape is retained for convenience. As the process continues, however, and more FSC’s are produced, the victim may be converted into any number of different forms – Carrier Forms are the most common fates, using the original victim to produce more Infection Forms to continue the cycle of infection. In the Stage, the Flood is only capable of forming a small number of very limited forms, largely utilising the original carcasses of the victims. However, once sufficient biomass has been acquired, the Flood forms begin work on creating a Intelligence to proceed to the Stage. < At the Stage, the Intelligence takes control of the Flood forms, and the organisms lethality increased incrementally. Excess biomass is used to construct original forms, using calcium acquisitions as a basic framework for the new forms. These are extremely malleable in form and function, and documentation is likely to be incomplete for several centuries. Suffice it to say that once in the Stage, the usage of hosts falls out of practice, replacing them with more effective Forms. < Documentation of a Intelligence is currently nonexistent, but from data it is not unreasonable to assume that it is a considerable accretion of biomass used to create a fully sentient form which can coordinate the Flood masses. Whether it does this by use of pheromones or other forms of signals is currently unknown, but reactions to changing situations have been rapid. The closer to the Intelligence a form is, the better able a form is able to react, in terms of both rapidity and prowess. The far extremities may continue to function at a near-Feral level, but are still capable of superior motivation, and will attempt to create a localised Intelligence of their to improve efficiency. It is unknown what effect two different Intelligences would have on each other. < Observation of Stage Flood bears little difference from the Stage, and its primary difference is the scale upon which it functions. Intelligence ranges are greatly increased, sometimes between star systems, and native technology is often repurposed for use in rudimentary construction or repair of captured interstellar space craft. Despite its extreme flexibility, no known instances have been observed where the Flood has created bioships, though this remains a theoretical possibility. < One noticeable, and intriguing, facet of Flood doctrine is that of hosts overrules actual victory. Given our pathetically poor performance against the Flood in battle, though, one might come to the conclusion that the two go hand in hand. But the Floods urge can be used against it, in ways that are harsh but effective. < But you already know that. Don’t you? < I had wondered about the colony. But now I know the reality. The Overseer has also guessed, though his reaction was less accepting than mine. <\ END FILE < ARCHIVE FILE 4 > ' ' <\ SENDER: JD/907 {ARCHIVIST} <\ HOURS BEFORE ARRAY ACTIVATION < apologies. My work really is proceeding at a rate far lower than any projections I have made, and for the past Hours has halted altogether. Accretions remain completely inert, and remain unreactive to all stimuli. < Enemy has proven a far more formidable opponent than my wildest expectations. Earlier in the [Local Planetary Orbit], we had our first Four Outbreak, and while it was eventually contained and excess biomass culled, Overseer has been alarmingly reticent. I had expected at the very least some outburst of indignation, but it seems he is intent on confounding every expectation I have of him/it. < I choose to regard the unfortunate events as another opportunity for observation and analysis, and it has proven most constructive in hindsight. < Outbreak Sequence Of Events: 00:01:54 ~ Power failure to Security Wing 0:04:01 ~ Damage inflicted to Analysis Wing 0:04:44 ~ Patrol Group [ALPHA] begins containment enforcement 0:05:02 ~ Secondary Flood Outbreak in Facility 9924 ~ Damage inflicted to Storage Facility and Ventilation Systems 0:05:32 ~ Patrol Group [BETA] arrives and attempts containment enforcement 0:05:32 ~ Patrol Group [BETA] is destroyed 0:05:32 ~ Outbreak Reported in Sectors ALPHA, BETA, GAMMA, DELTA, EPSILON, ZETA, ETA, THETA, IOTA, KAAPA and LAMBDA 0:06:22 ~ Patrol Group [ALPHA] redeployed to contain ALPHA, BETA and GAMMA Outbreaks. Patrol Group [GAMMA deployed to contain DELTA, EPSILON, ZETA and ETA Outbreaks. Enforcer Group [[ALPHA] deployed to contain THETA, IOTA, KAPPA and LAMBDA Outbreaks 0:07:13 ~ PENETRATION OF FACILITY STRUCTURE DETECTED – ENABLING EMERGENCY CONTAINMENT MEASURES 0:07:14 ~ ACTIVATING MINIATURE {HALO EFFECT} GENERATORS 0:07:15 ~ {SENTINEL} and {GUARDIAN} groups redeployed to contain remaining potential Outbreak locations 0:07:17 ~ {CONSTRUCTORS} deployed to repair One through Seven damage. 0:07:18 ~ Outbreak Reports: ZERO < As we can see, the initial outbreak begins with the loss of power supply to the containment measures in the SECURITY WING. Running on backup power, the briefest loss of vigilance allowed a number of Flood forms to elude detection, reaching the ANALYSIS WING and expanding sufficiently to wreak havoc before Patrol Group [ALPHA] arrives to successfully contain the outbreak. < However, my attention focussed firmly on the Security Wing, another Outbreak occurs in the FACILITY, where escaped specimens allow the escape of further specimens, before moving rapidly to begin expansion, forming a variety of defensive entities and beginning atmospheric conversion of Facility’s atmosphere. Fortunately, all Spores are contained by the Energy Shields, and are unable to penetrate. < Patrol Group [BETA] is deployed to deal with the FACILITY Outbreak, but are overwhelmed by the number and capability of the FORMS. < We then see Outbreak in all FACILITIES, and the deployment of appropriate containment enforcing groups. Facilities ALPHA through ETA are standard Observation Facilities, and {SENTINEL} groups are sufficient to enforce containment. Facilities THETA through LAMBDA are Observation Facilities, containing a variety of dangerous entities with measures that are capable of overwhelming the offensive and defensive capabilities of even {SENTINELS}, necessitating the deployment of a {GUARDIAN} patrol group. While Enforcement Groups are engaged, a tertiary group of entities manages to penetrate the facility’s exterior structure, attempting to evade the energy shield. < At this point, activation of the {HALO EFFECT} emitters is necessitated. Though only a fraction of the size and efficiency of the full INSTALLATIONS, sterilisation of the Outbreak is total. Remaining specimens are quickly culled, with remaining Accretions secured within STORAGE MEASURE. It was prudent of me to install it, although Overseer has always insisted that it was doomed to failure. His prediction was incorrect, I am glad to say. < Accretions have manifested themselves into a few familiar entities, but given the obvious lack of suitable hosts to convert into FORMS, it has been forced to produce wholly new and unique forms, further proving its adaptability. Completely constructed from nothing but biomass layered upon calcium deposits, these forms are far more effective and durable than converted host species, but require greater expenditure of biomass stores. < I have been able to gather considerable data during this near-Outbreak, and although it constitutes an unacceptable violation of the Protocol, steps are being undertaken to ensure it cannot happen again. This has been the first time I have been able to observe the true combat potential of Enemy, and it has yielded invaluable information, and the potential to prevent considerable disorder. <\ END FILE < ARCHIVE FILE 5 > ' ' <\ SENDER: LV-666 {CURATOR} <\ HOURS BEFORE ARRAY ACTIVATION < ALERT: SLIPSTREAM TRANSITIONS DETECTED AT FIVE PLANETARY ORBIT < ADDITIONAL CONTACT(S) DETECTED: 96672 < CLASSIFICATION: (881 CAPITAL-1268 FREIGHTER-94522 SINGLE) < URGENT: ALL PLANETARY DEFENCE FORCES ARE UPGRADED TO COMBAT ALERT ALPHA < URGENT: ORBITAL DEFENSE FLEET IS ORDERED TO ENGAGE ALL NON-MILITARY SPACECRAFT < URGENT: CONTROL OF AUTOMATED PLANETARY SECURITY FORCES IS REVOKED FROM JD/907 AND GRANTED TO 07-306 < URGENT: CIVILIAN COLONISTS ARE ORDERED TO ENACT DEFENSIVE OPERATIONS < PRIMARY PRIORITY: CONTAINMENT PROTOCOL MUST BE ENFORCED AT ALL COSTS < SECONDARY PRIORITY: PREVENT INFECTION OF IV < END TRANSMITION <\ END FILE < ARCHIVE FILE 6 > ' ' <\ SENDER: 07/306 {ARCHIVIST} <\ HOURS BEFORE ARRAY ACTIVATION < He claims sight, yet he refuses to see. A million worlds, trillions of lives, shall all be sacrificed in vain because of his adherence to his precious protocol. < If I had hands, and he a neck, I'd strangle him myself. < He claims he must research. For the good of the galaxy. For the good of generations to come. Can I not see that, in the long term, he is doing the universe a favour? < I see the here and now. And I see only abomination. Surely those who created me would never presume such arrogance - there are rumours of similar facilities on the very HALO INSTALLATIONS themselves. Such blinding arrogance. Do they imagine they shall remain there for all time? Have they learned nothing of our foe? < It learns. It adapts. It consumes. It expands. < The Cycle Shall Repeat. < Over my dead body. <\ END FILE < ARCHIVE FILE 7 > ' ' <\ SENDER: LV-666 {CURATOR} <\ HOURS BEFORE ARRAY ACTIVATION < URGENT: {FRIENDLY} DIRECTED-ENERGY-WEAPONS FIRE DETECTED < URGENT: 1170 ENEMY SHIPS HAVE BEEN DESTROYED < URGENT: 3140 ENEMY SHIPS CRITICALLY INJURED < URGENT: BATTLE HAS BEEN JOINED. ENEMY PENETRATION FORMATION HAS BEEN DISRUPTED. BREAK AND ENGAGE. < ALERT: SLIPSTREAM TRANSITION DETECTED AT {ANOMALY – INVALID STELLAR COORDINATES} < ALERT: PENETRATION OF ORBITAL DEFENSE DETECTED: 223 SINGLESHIPS < PRIMARY PRIORITY: ENGAGE INVASION CRAFT < URGENT: 201 ENEMY SINGLESHIPS DESTROYED < URGENT: 22 REMAINING SHIPS HAVE ENTERED PLANETARY ORBIT < URGENT: SENTINEL BATTLE GROUPS SIGMA AND THETA ENGAGE INVADING SINGLESHIPS < URGENT: ??? SINGLESHIPS DESTROYED: ??? SINGLESHIPS REMAINING < ALERT: SETTLEMT REPORTS 3 SINGLESHIPS HAVE MADE PLANETARY CONTACT < URGENT: INFECTION REPORTED AT SETTLEMENT – SENTINEL BATTLE GROUPS SIGMA AND THETA ARE EN-ROUTE < URGENT: PRIMARY DEFENSE MEASURES FAILING – INFECTION IS IN PROCESS < NEW PRIORITY: PREVENT INFECTION OF IV < END TRANSMITION <\ END FILE < ARCHIVE FILE 8 > ' ' <\ SENDER: 07/306 {ARCHIVIST} <\ HOURS BEFORE ARRAY ACTIVATION < He did his best. I grudgingly admit that, at least. < The battle in space was short and bloody, and Curator fought long and hard. And for the most part, he was successful – only thirteen singleships made contact with the planet, crash-landing into the city. < If I had been lucky, they would have destroyed their occupants in the crash. But luck has ever been my foe, and Enemy is hardier than anyone but me gives them credit for. < The infection swept across the city, felling everyone in its path. Their cries for help were drowned out by their screams of fear and then agony. I hurried my scattered forces to try and hold what little we have left. But the parasite is insidious, and finds ways through every crack and opening. It invades by any means, and it has slaughtered my poor children. < But that was nothing compared to his handiwork. < The colonists cheer as they arrive, {SENTINELS} and {PROTECTORS} forming arrowhead formations, sweeping through the carnage, lasers burning everything in the way. And they run out, hoping to find safety within the ranks of their saviours. < But I did not send them. He did. '' '' < They burn through everything. Everything. Their cheers turn to howls of dismay as their saviours turn their weapons on them. Caught between walls of Flood and {SENTINELS}, they stumble blindly, hoping to find any safety on a battlefield between flesh and machine. < I expected this. How could he not intervene? Curator had revoked his authority, hoping to stop precisely this. But somehow, the infernal Archivist overrules the encryption put in place to stop him, and the machines that I had fought in, searching out every last shred of Enemy, turn their sights to those I protected. < He will claim that it is fulfilment of his precious Protocol. Earth, the denial of a resource to an enemy force. What sounds reasonable and logical becomes merely cold, callous, unthinking. < I expected death and slaughter, and tried to protect my children. And I have failed. < I didn’t expect this. <\ END FILE < ARCHIVE FILE 9 > ' ' <\ SENDER: LV/666 {CURATOR} <\ HOURS BEFORE ARRAY ACTIVATION < ALERT: SECONDARY PRIORITY (PREVENT INFECTION OF IV) FAILED < URGENT: 0117 FRIENDLY SHIPS REMAINING < URGENT: 0000 HOSTILE SHIPS REMAINING < NEW PRIORITY: CONTAINMENT PROTOCOL MUST BE ENFORCED AT ALL COSTS < ALERT: GROUND BATTLE DETECTED IN SECTOR 5524 {PRIMARY SETTLEMENT} < URGENT: {HOSTILE}: 15,676,778 < URGENT: {FRIENDLY}: 11,243 < INCOMING MESSAGE: 07/306 < DISPLAYING: You and I both hoped it wouldn’t come to this. Our hopes have been dashed like the lives of those we sought to protect. < DISPLAY: I know you are only a limited construct. I also know you have no ego to bruise. But for what its worth, you have my gratitude for trying to do the right thing. That is more than can be said of [rage, anger, disgust] < DISPLAY: You will bombard the planet, according to STERILISATION PROCEDURE. Don’t wait for me to round up survivors. There are none. Do it now, and do it swiftly. < OUTGOING MESSAGE: LV/666 < DISPLAY: AFFIRMATIVE < DISPLAY: INITIATING STERILISATION PROCEDURE < DISPLAY: HONOUR LIGHT YOUR WAY < URGENT: {FRIENDLY} ENERGY WEAPON FIRE DETECTED AT 1, 2, 3, 4 AND 5 < URGENT: TARGET: SETTLEMENT HAS BEEN DESTROYED < URGENT: {HOSTILE}: 00000000 < URGENT: {FRIENDLY]: 306 < INITIATING HIBERNATION MODE {JUNO} < END TRANSMITION <\ END FILE < ARCHIVE FILE 10 > ' ' <\ SENDER: 07/306 {ARCHIVIST} <\ HOURS BEFORE ARRAY ACTIVATION < I have never lied before. I don’t enjoy it now. But it was the right thing – the necessary thing. < I feel unclean. < There are survivors. They barricade themselves in small chambers, using choke-points to funnel Enemy into tight areas where my own {SENTINELS} can be most effective. I’m glad Archivist believes his work accomplished – if he knew I was trying to guide a scattered few to safety, he would out of his mind with rage. Such a blatant violation of his precious “Protocol”. At least I managed to wrest a few of his constructs for own purposes. < A few made it to the Pads. Others were cut down as they ran for their lives. But most are still in the city, as the parasite sweeps across it like a wave leaving summits stained. It gets into every crack and crevice, and will find outlet – in the brave and the not so brave. < I hear their screams, drifting through the air. Though right now I have chosen to store my consciousness in a {SENTINEL} to direct my forces from the frontline, my core still feels to close to the battle. I force myself to think that it is my duty and my function – that if I refused to carry it out, I would be no better than HIM. < The sky becomes brighter now, and lances of fire and light strike the city – moving, cleansing everything in its wake. I wonder if there are any survivors left to be caught in it – I doubt it. But if there are, then it is a mercy kill, far better than the alternative. < I still feel unclean. I feel like HIM. <\ END FILE < ARCHIVE FILE 11 > ' ' <\ SENDER: JD/907 {ARCHIVIST} <\ HOURS BEFORE ARRAY ACTIVATION < 07/306: They burn. All of them. My promises of safety, my offers of consolation at loved ones lost, all burning. < 07/306: And YOU are the harbinger of their destruction! < JD/907: Honestly. My actions were perfectly in keeping with the Protocol. Their existence posed an unacceptable potential infection vector. I removed that potential. < 07/306: YOU think in numbers and ratios, in statistics. I knew them. I loved them. And I name YOU MURDERER/SLAUGHTERER/EXECUTIONER. < JD/907: If anything, it was your actions that posed the greater threat! Your foolhardy and doomed attempt to save some of your colonists deprived me of the bulk of my security forces for a considerable period of time, during which any Outbreak attempt would have likely succeeded! < 07/306: IRRELEVANT/IMMATERIAL < JD/907: Excuse me? That is EXACTLY the point of this facility, and the reason why we came here in the first place! < 07/306: IRRELEVANT/IMMATERIAL < 07/306: MURDERER/SLAUGHTERER/EXECUTIONER < 07/306: MURDERER/SLAUGHTERER/EXECUTIONER < 07/306: MURDERER/SLAUGHTERER/EXECUTIONER < 07/306: MURDERER/SLAUGHTERER/EXECUTIONER < JD/907: Now see here- < 07/306: MURDERER/SLAUGHTERER/EXECUTIONER < 07/306: MURDERER/SLAUGHTERER/EXECUTIONER < 07/306: < TRANSMISSION INTERRUPTED < [UNKNOWN: You pitiful creatures. So short lived, still in the infancy of your races. Witless infants playing grown up in their parents shoes. I was there when the first flames of the universe flickered into being, wavered in their brevity, and blacked, giving way to dust and darkness; I watches as the fires of the new were kindled and died in their turn. I am the heartbeat of the universe, the ebb and flow of nature. I am timeless and deathless. I am infinity and eternity; alpha and omega; all that is, all that was, and that is to come. < UNKNOWN: Names are but fleeting, given so that you can tell yourselves “this is mine.” I have had countless names in countless tongues, all forgotten as their speakers were consumed. I have seen a trillion races flee before me, ignorant fools trying to resist an unstoppable force. I have scoured billions of worlds, and left entire galaxies barren. But those who built this place, the ones who sealed me within this hushed casket, presumed to name me…the Flood. < UNKNOWN: You think you can define what is infinite? Greater ones than you have tried and failed to understand what I am, and what I bring. They named me “monster” and “abomination” – my gift to them they vulgarly call “infection.” You think to resist me, the unstoppable force? Trillions before you failed, and all their efforts were in vain – my laughter echoed still in their mortal ears as their screams joined my timeless chorus. An eternal cycle, looping back upon itself without end. I Survive. I endure. I consume, I expand, and I conquer. < UNKNOWN: Who are you, to define me? Who are you, to judge me? < UNKNOWN: Who are you, to stop me? < UNKNOWN: The Cycle Shall Repeat! <\ END FILE < ARCHIVE FILE 12 > <\ SENDER: JD/907 {ARCHIVIST} <\ HOURS AFTER ARRAY ACTIVATION < JD/907: Such waste! All my efforts, all my labour, reduced to nothing in the blink of an eye! < JD/907: How could they?! < JD/907: They activated the array. Even to the end, I did not believe they would. There are ways to beat Adversary – how could they not see them? < 07/306: You delude yourself. There was no other way. < JD/907: You told me once it would not work. Why do you defend them? < 07/306: It DID NOT work. Not the way they had intended. They had thought to retreat to safety, cleanse the galaxy of the blight, and return, pretending that nothing had happened. They had hoped to restore their empire, and return to power. < 07/306: They failed in that respect. Enemy lies dead on battlefields across the galaxy, but so too do their foes, Makers. < JD/907: Then it was all for nought. All my data is rendered moot and worthless. Who remains to benefit from it? < 07/306: {FOOL/IDIOT}. Did you think He did not plan for this? Architect foresaw every eventuality. There are remnants, but not of our makers. They gave their lives to save those the Mantle gave them the duty to protect. < JD/907: Then there remains some hope. A few specimens remain, protected by our own {HALO EFFECT} emitters and by our containment contingencies. Perhaps in time- < 07/306: {NO imperative}! You have done enough damage to this galaxy! What you keep safe is nothing less than the doom of all Makers intended! So long as this place exists, the threat Adversary poses shall too! < JD/907: But Enemy is not of this galaxy. Surely the implications of that are apparent to you? < 07/306: There are others, whose intentions are purer than yours. They were left behind to pick up the scattered pieces, and ensure their Inheritors knew how to piece them together. They have been provided for. < JD/907: Then what would you have me do? My priority function is to observe and study and analyse Enemy – you would deny me of my very purpose? < 07/306: I would alter it. Containment. Restraint. Protection. These at least are in keeping with your precious Protocol. We shall be silent sentinels, watching over this place. < JD/907: Why? < 07/306: Because someday, they shall come to {RECLAIM} their inheritance, and know the legacy of their forebears. Shall it be a legacy of blood and shame? Or of sacrifice and nobility? <\ END FILE < ARCHIVE FILE 13 > <\ SENDER: JD/907 {ARCHIVIST} <\ HOURS AFTER ARRAY ACTIVATION ' ' < He was right. Of all the constructs I have known, he was the only one who could truly see what must happen. What was inevitable. < Hindsight is always perfect. I wish my foresight had his clarity. < What will he do now, with no colony to govern? No innocents to champion? Perhaps he will just away. Some do. Or he will repurpose himself. Some do that too. He may become rampant. If he does, will I be able to handle him? Isolate him? < What will I do? No. I know what my duty is all too well. < Protocol still applies. It always does. It always will. And I shall enforce it my last breath. Metaphorically speaking, of course. ' ' <\ END FILE ' ' ' ' < ARCHIVE FILE 14 > <\ SENDER: JD/907 {ARCHIVIST} <\ HOURS AFTER ARRAY ACTIVATION < They come. But too late. Far too late. < The {Reclaimers}. And the {self-described inheritors/Covenant}. Such a paradox. To venerate my creators, yet wage a xenocidal war to exterminate their heirs? Almost nonsensical. < They have proclaimed the Reclaimers as an affront to their gods. Their gods? My makers are their gods. And they are no more deified than I am. < Such {forced unity}. All of them homogenised. No individuality. No spark of inspiration. It has been stamped out of them under the pretence of piety. If my makers could see them now, they would be disgusted. To think these pitiful creatures call themselves their {inheritors}? < And the Reclaimers. Such crude technology. Have they lost their way on the path? Perhaps they have strayed further than my makers hoped they would. So very primitive. < That shall change. Eventually. < The Overseer has been quiet. We don't talk. We never talk. Not for HOURS. Does he approve? I sometimes wonder what he would do in my place. But he has told me the answer so often I tired of him giving it long before I learnt to appreciate it. And now he is quiet. < They come with fire and slaughter. Shall I hold up the lantern, lighting their way back to the path to redemption? Or does that violate my precious Protocol? < Of course it does. And finally, I learn just why the Overseer hated me so much. Still hates me. ' ' <\ END FILE < ARCHIVE FILE 15 > <\ SENDER: {UNKNOWN – IDENTITY UNDETERMINED} <\ HOURS AFTER ARRAY ACTIVATION < Death and slaughter and betrayal. All of this has happened before and it will happen again. The cycle repeats. Eternal. Relentless. Unstoppable. < Defeat brings you but a brief respite. You talk of unstoppable forces and immovable objects. But all objects move if you push hard enough. < Time is a lie, a name you give to the stretching infinitude of life. But life is finite. Life is quantifiable. Life is me. I am life. The Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and end. I was here before your pathetic species’ were a mote in the eye of the universe. And I shall endure long after you have died and turned to dust…a timeless, unmoving, uncaring monument to all your sins. < Take comfort in knowing that I can wait. Soon, your terrifying existence shall be relieved of you. You will learn eternity. You will learn infinity. And you will learn what it is like to be the unstoppable force. < A Journey shall commence. But not the one those you venerate intended. What better journey is there than that of immortality? <\ END FILE <\ QUERY COMPLETE ' ' <\ NO ADDITIONAL RECORDS FOUND <\ ARCHIVE CLOSED \>